1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic wallet applied system for providing a variety of service information in addition to electronic money information in an IC card used for a commercial transaction using an electronic wallet system.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, retail stores such as large-sized household electric appliances shops, compact disc shops, gas stations and others provide a variety of premium services as an incentive, or reward, program for their regular customers. Typically, the premium services correspond to the sum of shopping by their specific customers who contract with their shops. Particularly, such shops often issue point information based upon the sum of shopping and often provide a cash value coupon or a gift certificate equivalent to the point information to such customers. In this case, point information is generally stored in a magnetic card.
In the meantime, as disclosed in Japanese published unexamined patent application No. H3-92966, transactions using no cash by an electronic wallet system using an IC card have been developed. This is a system in which commercial transaction can be completed without using any cash by writing arbitrarily specified sum information to the memory of an IC card and sending required sum information from the IC card in clearing.
If commercial transactions by this electronic wallet system are realized, a customer can do his/her daily shopping by only owning an IC card. In this case, it is anticipated that participating shops will also provide a variety of premium services to their customers. However, with previous conventional systems, if a magnetic card is used as a medium for storing point information, two cards consisting of an IC card and a magnetic card are required in payment.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement for use with an IC card which is capable of storing a plurality of balances relating to commercial transactions.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to simplify the storage of point information, and use of the point information, when premium services are provided to customers in commercial transactions.
In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement for use with an IC card for commercial transactions that can maintain a plurality of balances to permit convenient small sum transactions without the need for using a security code, with preventing large sum transactions unless a proper security code is entered.
To achieve the above and other objects, the present invention provides an automated transaction terminal operating in conjunction with an IC card for storing electronic money information and point information, IC card reading/writing means for reading and writing information stored in the IC card, IC card control means for controlling the input and ejection of the IC card, and input means for inputting the sum information of a transaction and sales information storage means for storing electronic money information equivalent to the sum information of the transaction.
When a commercial transaction is performed, electronic money equivalent to the sum of the transaction is subtracted from electronic money stored in an IC card which is read by the IC card reading/writing means and is stored in the sales information storage means. When the commercial transaction is performed, the information of a point equivalent to the above sum of the transaction is also stored in the IC card by the IC card reading/writing means.
According to the present invention, when a shop provides a variety of premium services in a commercial transaction by an electronic wallet system, the sum of the transaction can be paid and point information can be managed by only one IC card by storing sum information and point information in the same IC card. A shop issues point information corresponding to the sum of shopping which is stored in an IC card and can provide a cash value coupon or a gift certificate equivalent to this point information to its customer as a premium service.
In the above system, sum information and point information are separately stored in a plurality of areas in an IC card, however, sum information can be also separately be stored in a plurality of areas. In this case, for example, the sum information of a small sum is stored in one area and the sum information of a large sum is stored in the other area. The information of an ordinarily payable sum may be also stored in the area for the sum information of a small sum and the area for the sum information of a large sum may be always locked by personal identification numbers. As a result, as daily payment of a small sum can be freely performed, however, personal identification numbers are required to be input only in the payment of a large sum. Thus, both a normal function as an IC card and a function for providing security when an IC card is lost can be met by one IC card.